Wednesday August 11^th, 2010 – Port Moresby, PNG: Digicel PNG Foundation continues the rollout of new elementary classrooms nationwide. Today Hula Foursquare Living Light Elementary School received two new classrooms. They are the tenth elementary school nationwide to benefit from new infrastructure in PNG. 

The two new elementary classrooms were officially launched today at Hula village, in Rigo District, Central Province. Hundreds of people from the Hula community were present to witness this special occasion. The two kit structure classrooms including basic school materials were funded at a total cost of K40,000 and will cater for 50 children between four and ten years of age.

The Hula Foursquare Living Light Elementary School was established in 2009 and currently uses the open church building as well as space under the local teachers’ houses to teach close to 80 children enrolled at the school. The church supports the school in cash and kind as other sources of funding are not available. There are four classes from Elementary Prep to Elementary 2 with five local teachers.  

 Now, with the welcome addition of the two new classrooms and school resources, the needs of the children will be catered for. Each of the classrooms comes with a library including 150 books each, kindly donated by NGO Hope Worldwide, as well as a school blackboard and slates. All the children were also given a Digicel Foundation school string bag including exercise books and a pencil case with school stationary.

The School Board Chairman, Jimmy Tuaru, said, “We are very happy with our two new classrooms and the extra school resources. These new classrooms are a huge step forward for us. The children are so excited they cannot wait to attend classes in these new facilities. This is a great boost for the moral of our teachers and young students and a great start to our school year”. 

Marina van der Vlies, CEO of the Digicel Foundation, who was witnessing the launch said: “To be in a position to help elementary schools in the region in this way is a very rewarding experience. These are all home grown, community based schools that get very little support from other sources than their own. People here don’t have much and always give what they can. To be able to give a child a better quality basic education is something very precious that will last for a lifetime”. 

The Digicel Foundation especially recognizes those communities that are active in helping themselves with the little resources they have. The Digicel Foundation’s main focus is to initiate projects that will provide opportunities and inspire a positive and vibrant future for the communities within PNG. The Digicel Foundation believes that as the Digicel company grows, the communities in PNG should grow as well.  

To date the Digicel Foundation has funded 38 Community Learning Centres, 12 primary school and 16 elementary school infrastructure projects; four Mobile Health Clinics, four Womens Resource Centre projects and four Family Support Centres. Last month 58 volunteer teachers from Port Moresby settlement communities graduated from a Digicel Foundation funded basic education skills training. The Digicel Foundation plans to continue the funding of community projects in the area of education aiming to support communities as they hopefully become more self-reliant in the future.